Wolfe’s Neck Farm was given to the University of Southern Maine by Eleanor Houston Smith, widow of LMC Smith. Both had been founders of the farm, What follows is from a memo by Sam Smith, then president of the Wolfe’s Neck Farm Foundation board
- The USM president at the time of the gift, Patricia Plante, expressed little interest in the farm at any time during her tenure. I am told that she told a friend she was embarrassed to have cows under her. She failed to respond to several practical suggestions I made as president of the WNF board including pointing out that while the university was using computers, it was expecting the farm to get along without one.
- In 1990 the university stated that the wife of the farm manager could no longer work at the farm because of its personnel rules. I pointed out this was a strange way to run a family farm and suggested that they add a paragraph exempting family farms. They refused.
- At the time the university was falsely claiming it was the WNF Foundation's responsibility - with a liquid endowment of only $300,000 - to make up any deficits. When it became clear that the university planned to drain the endowment, I got the board to agree to end further subsidies to the university.
- The university selected a new farm manager without a single farmer on the search committee.
- In 1992 I invited the University of Maine board of trustees to Wolfe's Neck to outline our frustrations with USM. Among the problems I listed were:
· The covert attempt to pass legislation that would have turned the Stone House into a center to aid corporations in weakening or defeating the purposes of environmental regulations, a total betrayal of the deed of gift. This legislation was only stopped because a friendly legislator warned me about it.
· The failure of the university, over seven years, to consult with and make use of environmental and agricultural organizations or other sources of expertise, including American Farmland Trust, the trustee of WNF.
· The lack of any operational plan for the farm after seven years
· The lack of any fundraising
· A farm manager who clearly misunderstood the nature of natural agriculture
· A farm manager who ridiculed family farming
· Damage to historic structures including the Stone House, the latter only stopped by a low level USM official who took up its cause.
· The failure to use the Foundation board in an advisory capacity as called for in the deed of gift.
· The failure or refusal of the university to provide the Foundation with information and cooperation necessary for it to carry out its functions under the deed of gift.
· The submission of a three line budget in 1991
· The removal of past financial data from reports making it impossible for the Foundation to accurately follow what was happening.
· The failure to inform the Foundation of activities at the farm.
· The sudden ending of snow plow service without notice to all those previously using the service in the Wolf Neck area.
· The preemptory layoff of employees at the farm without consultation with the foundation despite misleading prior statements to the contrary.
· The rehiring of one of these workers later as a temporary employee thus effectively stripping him of his health and other benefits.
· The failure to consult the foundation on major capital purchases
- I told the UM board of trustees that "the poor management and stewardship of WNF to date Is not only a violation of agreements, but a betrayal of the trust of the donor, an embarrassment to the university and the state, an insult to those who worked so hard to make WNF the priceless asset that USM is squandering, and an act of irresponsibility towards the people of Maine, in how interests it has patently failed to act."
- The USM board of trustees came to the Stone House and discussed matters with us but with absolutely no visible subsequent effect.
- A consultant hired to help in university fundraising pointed out in his report that the problems concerning WNF could have, and had had, an unfavorable impact on the university's overall development plans.
That gives a sense of some of the problems we faced while USM was running the farm. But it was not the end. Suddenly in 1997, the university announced it was giving up the farm. I suspected then, and still do, that USM only took the farm in order to get the Stone House and that we had been involved in a decade-long charade of professed interest on its part.
In any case, a number of us formed a rescue taskforce to recover from the damage caused by USM. A new foundation was formed, the community (treated with contempt by USM) was involved and the farm was saved.
But on the morning of the transfer from USM to non-profit status, I decided I had better go out and check the herd. There were clearly a large number missing. When I returned to my house, the USM lawyer was there and I told her that a major portion of the herd was missing and that "they have a name for that in Texas." It turned out that some 80 head of cattle had been covertly removed from the property with a value of $75-100K
During the transfer all tools were removed covertly from the workshop and all documents from the farm office as well as all data stripped from its computers. We had to restart the farm without a single record of what had happened before.
The university did, as I recall, pay some $100,000 for damages to equipment and buildings but far less than the actual costs involved.
